Bonn-based Haribo, which invented the gummy bear nearly a century ago, said Friday it would open a U.S. factory in Wisconsin in 2020.

Haribo, founded in 1920, has been in the U.S. since 1982 with a sales operation, and is already the top seller of gummy bears in the country, but says it wants to grow further.

Company head Hans Guido Riegel says “Haribo of America is the fastest growing confectionary company in the U.S.A., therefore the step of starting our own production there from 2020 is important for us.”

In addition to their German manufacturing, Haribo has made gummies in Spain for a long time. To me, the Spanish ones don’t taste as good as the German ones. Hopefully the ones made in Wisconsin will be more like the originals.

I don’t know if this factored in Haribo’s decision, but, as you likely know, Wisconsin has a large population of German descent. Milwaukee, for all intents and purposes, was a transplanted German burg in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (well over 1/3 of its citizens was ethnic Deutsch). Needless to say, Milwaukee also has a great beer brewing tradition as well.